With the development of digital multimedia and networks, entertainment experiences of users in daily life are enriched and operations of home appliances are facilitated. Existing techniques enable users at home to enjoy high-definition TV programs from a digital optical disk, a cable television, the Internet and the like. Stereo, 5.1 acoustic channel, 7.1 acoustic channel and even more vivid sound effect may be experienced. Moreover, the users are able to implement these experiences by using hand-held multimedia electronic devices, tablet computers (PADs) or mobile phones. The related art also includes that a user is able to transfer a digital content between different devices through a network so as to play the transferred content, and to control playing on a device through a remote control or a gesture, e.g. the user is able to control a switch from a program of a previous channel to a next channel, and to operate an air conditioner or a lamp so as to control the temperature or dim the lights, respectively.
In the related art, for controlling multiple devices, generally a user may control devices using their respective remote controllers, but these remote controllers are not universal, and most of these controllers for devices such as a traditional TV set or sound box, are not network enabled. There may be some network enabled remote controls, e.g., a device (e.g., a mobile phone, a PAD) having computing and networking capabilities may be loaded with software supporting intercommunication protocols to control another device.
With the development of techniques, there are increasing demands for sharing and transferring content being played between multiple devices, thus it is required to manipulate many home appliances respectively, and ways of manipulation include: a user needs to select a remote control corresponding to a specific device from a number of remote controllers to control different devices, and thus the user needs to change remote controllers from time to time; the device can be controlled through operations on a pad or a mobile phone by people familiar with basic operations on computers, or a single device is controlled by a simple gesture.
It can be seen that in order to use different devices, it is usually necessary to learn to use different manipulation tools. A user prefers to control more devices in a small range by using a simpler and more natural operation method.
At present, gesture control is a relatively novel manipulation technology. A camera on a device monitors a gesture, analyzes and recognizes the monitored gesture, converts the recognized gesture into control instructions for the device and executes the instructions; or a user uses a wearable device, and wears a device like a ring, a watch, a vest and the like on a hand, an arm and the body so that the device recognizes an action of the user, converts the same into control instructions for the device and execute the instructions.
The related art enables a user to use a gesture to manipulate a device. For example, a camera is added on a television so as to acquire and recognize a gesture of a user, an instruction corresponding to an acquired gesture is determined according to correspondences between gestures and control instructions, and the determined instruction is executed. Achieved manipulations include change of a channel, change of a volume and so on.
However, it is required in the related art that a manipulated device is provided with a camera so as to acquire a gesture. Usually, many devices are gathered in some environments, such as a home environment. A camera for recognizing a gesture may be integrated on these devices. When using a gesture to control a device, a user needs to face a camera of a device to be manipulated so as to make a control action. If a plurality of devices needs to be manipulated, the user needs to move among different devices, so as to make gestures for manipulating the devices, thus resulting in cumbersome and time-consuming operations, and user experiences are affected.
There is yet no effective solution for helping a user to use gestures to manipulate a plurality of devices rapidly and conveniently in the related art.